Nobody within the top seven divisions of the English footballing pyramid have registered more goals or points than Dagenham & Redbridge, around whom there is now a significant buzz that is beginning to expand beyond the confines of their Victoria Road home. Explosive attacking firepower has negated the undeniable deficiencies at the opposite end of the pitch, yet that is merely an (albeit undesirable) bi-product of the brave brand of football deployed by manager Daryl McMahon and his carefully-manufactured squad of highly-talented players, whose authoritative performances have helped cultivate a strong bond with supporters for the first time in several years. Everybody is pushing in the right direction towards a united cause. This has been no more evident than in a battling victory over Weymouth on Tuesday evening that was characterised by immense determination and belief. It was their fifth victory of the campaign and an incredible four of those have been from behind, partially inspired by the fact that their fanbase's vocal support has never wavered in the face of a setback. When the Daggers went 2-1 down shortly before the break in midweek, the home faithful along the North Terrace immediately belted out support rather than derisory abuse, for which they were rewarded with a stunning second-half fightback. This kept the club at the summit of the National League table, a fitting end to an occasion which marked three years exactly since the completion of the takeover by the American consortium. Peter Freund and Craig Unger, the figureheads of that group, have repeatedly reiterated their desire to oversee promotion back to the EFL, and after a sustained period of frustrating underachievement maybe the foundations for that are finally beginning to formulate. AFTER SIX GAMES...
2016/17 - Wins 5, Draws 0, Defeats 1 | Points: 15 | Position: 2nd | Goals 12:4 | Top Scorer - Hawkins (4) 2017/18 - Wins 3, Draws 3, Defeats 0 | Points: 12 | Position: 1st | Goals 16:10 | Top Scorer - Whitely (6) 2018/19 - Wins 0, Draws 1, Defeats 5 | Points: 1 | Position: 24th | Goals 6:11 | Top Scorer - Romain, McQ (2) 2019/20 - Wins 2, Draws 1, Defeats 3 | Points: 7 | Position: 16th | Goals 7:10 | Top Scorer - Balanta (3) 2020/21 - Wins 1, Draws 1, Defeats 4 | Points: 4 | Position: 20th | Goals 3:8 | Top Scorer - Balanta (2) 2021/22 - Wins 5, Draws 1, Defeats 0 | Points: 16 | Position: 1st | Goals 17:8 | Top Scorer - PMC, Walker (4) The early success can be attributed to several factors, one of which is McMahon's willingness to make decisive changes at crucial points in the game. Myles Weston was introduced at half time against Bromley (H) and King's Lynn (A), transforming the game on both occasions, while Mo Sagaf had a similar influence at home to Weymouth. George Saunders struck the equaliser versus Wealdstone shortly after entering the action and Josh Walker also came on at Stockport to score, albeit this was an enforced change, but nonetheless underlined a trend that has continued to develop since. Daryl has proven as adept at setting up a team as he is altering one, consistently keeping faith with a preferred 3-4-3 formation that enables him to best incorporate a collection of permanent mainstays into the side - seven players have started every game, and that figure would probably be higher were it not for a couple of disruptive injuries occurring. Continuity has been key: there were only four additions over the summer, all of whom integrated seamlessly into a settled environment and this has been vital in sparking a run of form nearly identical to how we finished the previous campaign. Indeed, over the last sixteen competitive fixtures stretching to mid-April, there have been twelve victories, three draws and just a solitary reverse. It's a formidable record which now needs to be replicated on a grander scale over the course of a full, demanding campaign; in order for that to happen, we need to eradicate the sloppy early mistakes alluded to earlier. That we've trailed prior to the ten-minute mark in four of our six games so far may epitomise the spirit in the team to recover, but it also exposes a potential vulnerability. Sooner or later, you feel, we won't be able to rely on our strikeforce getting us out of trouble. Of course, supporters would gratefully accept an open 4-2 victory every week but it doesn't seem sustainable over a long-term period. Thankfully, though, it's proving successful at the minute and much of that is down to the fact that we've got scoring outlets all over the pitch - our centre half Will Wright alone has amassed as many goals as the entire team had after six games last season. Add to that the goalscoring prowess of Walker, McCallum, Weston, Robinson, Vilhete...it's not hard to understand how we're banging them in for fun. WHERE THEY FINISHED
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D&R 1:1 Wrexham📅 Sat 29 May 2021 | ⏰ 12:30 | 📍Victoria Road Daggers' late play-off push last season proved unsuccessful in the end, but we still had an opportunity to shape the fate of other contenders, and no more so than when we hosted Wrexham on the final day infront of the BT Sport cameras.
Fuelled by the authentic noise of the returning home crowd, McMahon's side produced an excellent performance, but were denied victory by a last-second equaliser from the ten men Dragons, who were nonetheless denied a play-off position as a result. |
DOVER 0:1 D&R📅 Sat 26 Dec 2020 | ⏰ 17:20 | 📍Crabble Dagenham continued their mini revival on Boxing Day with a slender yet thoroughly deserved victory at a Dover Athletic side moored at the bottom of the division. Two players proved the difference, 'Man of the Match' Balanta striking the winner then Justham saving a penalty.
Dover also suffered a sending off in the first half, which with Josh Passley seeing red for a wild challenge on Darren McQueen. It would be one of the last games our hosts would play that season, as they were soon unable to fulfil further fixtures. |
D&R 1:0 WEALDSTONE📅 Sat 26 Dec 2020 | ⏰ 17:20 | 📍Victoria Road Macclesfield Town's dissolution left BT Sport without a fixture for the second weekend of the campaign and so they selected Dagenham v Wealdstone as a replacement game, one of the first National League fixtures to be broadcast in the behind-closed-doors era.
The Daggers had started poorly, with two straight defeats, so this victory was very much needed. Balanta provided the crucial contribution, which is commonplace when the television cameras are in town, as his curling strike from close range downed the spirited Stones. |
01 🏴 Elliot JUSTHAM 02 🏴 Callum REYNOLDS | WRIGHT (46') 03 🏴 Elliott JOHNSON 04 🏴 Dean RANCE 06 🏴 Kenny CLARK 09 🏴 Paul MCCALLUM | CLIFTON (86') 10 🇨🇴 Ángelo BALANTA 11 🇦🇬 Myles WESTON | DEERING (79') 15 🏴 Andrew ELEFTHERIOU 18 🏴 Kai BROWN 24 🏴 Charlee ADAMS |
D&R 1:1 BROMLEY📅 Wed 04 Sep 2019 | ⏰ 19:45 | 📍Victoria Road Under Peter Taylor, the Daggers had started the 2019/20 season reasonably, and sat tenth ahead of a midweek clash at home to high-flying Bromley. Live on BT Sport, they made a flying start as Ángelo Balanta (who else?) glanced home Dobson's second-minute cross.
It was a lead that was held until the very dying seconds of the match, at which point Reeco Hackett-Fairchild spun his man inside the box before drilling in a crushing equaliser at the death. Dagenham soon fell apart, with Taylor losing his job four months later. |
EASTLEIGH 1:0 D&R📅 Sat 26 Sep 2018 | ⏰ 12:35 | 📍Silverlake Stadium The takeover from an American consortium, which was completed just a week earlier, offered a promising future yet the club remained in deep short-term trouble having accrued just eight points from eleven games, leaving them stuck in the relegation zone.
This trip to Eastleigh demonstrated why. A youthful Daggers outfit missed a hatful of clear opportunities, including a terrible penalty from Chike Kandi, before eventually conceding a last-minute decider. Paul McCallum was sent off for the hosts' in stoppage time. |
Dagenham & Redbridge look the real deal.
There were murmurings during a goal-laden pre-season, amplified when we duly dismantled title contenders Stockport County on day one. The hype train then gathered further momentum last weekend as we defeated both Bromley and Barnet within the space of a frenetic 48 hour period, after which we sat top of the division having also registered more goals than anyone else, at an average of three per game.
Joining us in the 100% record club are Chesterfield and Boreham Wood, neither of whom have conceded yet. However, both have benefitted from a generous start to the season in which they've been pitted against sides they would be expected to beat. Both have played Aldershot, tipped to struggle, while Chesterfield have also entertained Wealdstone and King's Lynn - incidentally our next two games - while Boreham Wood have won at Weymouth and Dover. This is not meant to discredit the Spireites nor the Wood, who as the saying goes can only beat what's infront of them, but rather to emphasise how impressive our start has been.
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First up is Wealdstone this weekend, which coincides with Non League Day, a long standing initative aiming to boost attendances below EFL level while the top two divisions of the English game enter a period of temporary hibernation for the first of many designated International breaks dotted throughout the campaign. Though largely immaterial at this stage, currently being the best ranked non-league club heading into a weekend that casts more of a spotlight on this level of football, is a lovely feeling.
Hopefully it's still the case come Saturday 5pm. We'll be reunited with two players from differing phases of our recent history in Medy Elito and Andrew Eleftheriou. Though the Stones shipped an astonishing amount of goals at the back end of the last campaign, including five to us as we completed the double, they appear to be more resolute now, as exhibited by a gritty 0-0 draw against Southend in their most recent outing.
These three games present a real opportunity for points, and it's not beyond the realms of possibility that we triumph in all three, such is the confidence within our ranks. Regardless of the fact we've exceeded expectations so far, we really can't be lowering our standards to accepting anything less than maximum points from this trio of matches.
WRITER
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